Andy Weir

Author of The Martian

Discussion

Hi, Andy here. I was first hired as a programmer for a national laboratory at age 15 and have been working as a software engineer ever since. I am also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. The Martian is my first novel.
EDIT - Okay folks. I'm out. Thanks for the questions. If you missed the event and have a burning question, feel free to email me at sephalon@gmail.com. I answer all fan mail (though sometimes it takes me a while to get to all of it)

@dannyshortThe research effort ended up being tons and tons of Google searches and a bunch of math. I didn’t know anyone in aerospace at the time I wrote the novel, so I was on my own. But I like researching, it’s fun for me. So it wasn’t a problem. I spent about three years writing the book and I'd say half of that time was spent researching

@centralparker Mostly my job was just to cash the check. Though they did send me the screenplay to get my opinion. They are not required to listen to anything I have to say. They keep me updated on the production because they’re cool.

@ptraughber I wrote it in OpenOffice Writer. However, once I got a print deal, the editing process pretty much required me to us MS Word, so now I use that. You need collaborative editing features in publishing and Word is hands-down the best at it.

@kyoung415 I don't take Mars One seriously at all. They have something like $400,000 in funding. That's not enough money to colonize Nebraska, let alone Mars. They think they can make tens of billions of dollars of revenue from a reality show. But that's about 100x as much money as any TV show has ever made, ever. I do think they serve a good purpose as a think-tank, though.
I don't think we'll *colonize* Mars any time this century. But a manned mission is certainly possible within our lifetimes. I'm guessing around 2050.

@andyweirauthor My son, who is 9, saw the movie poster and would like to go see it but I'm pretty sure it's going to end up rated R for language, isn't it? What are your thoughts on the importance of keeping the book's colorful language, versus limiting the younger audience?

@andyweirauthor In addition to the hard science elements of the story (which I very much enjoyed thanks to your breaking it down so well), there are quite a few comments/insights into sociology and psychology. What research or personal experiences did you pull from to write about the life/death realities Watney faces alone? His decision to endure? I have to admit there were quite a few times that I wondered how can he even comprehend getting up and going on? Also, are you pleased with Matt Damon's performance (at least in the previews)?

@bamaladyk I wanted the story to focus on the problems and solutions. I didn’t want it to be a dark and depressing tale of a man’s struggle with crippling loneliness and constant stress. That’s just not the story I wanted to tell. So I decided Mark is made of sterner stuff than most people. After all, he was chosen to be on a manned Mars mission, so he’s not just some guy off the street. He beat tens of thousands of other people for that position.
I've seen the film and I'm THRILLED with Matt's performance. He absolutely nailed the character. He's exactly how I imagined Watney.

@eriktorenberg There's very little character depth and there's no personal growth. It's a very plot-driven story. Those are the stories I like to read so those are the stories I write. I didn't delve into Mark's deeper feelings and he doesn't change his personality or outlook at all throughout the story. I acknowledge that as a reasonable complaint. Though I knew that's what I was doing when I wrote the book and I did it on purpose. :)

All right folks, that's it for me. Thanks for the questions. If you missed the event and have a burning question, feel free to email me at sephalon@gmail.com. I answer all fan mail (though sometimes it takes me a while to get to all of it)

@lejlahunts I'm working on my next book now. It's a more traditional sci-fi novel with aliens, faster-than-light travel, and telepaths, etc. It’s tentatively titled “Zhek” and it should be out in mid-2016

Hey Andy, I am currently reading The Martian and love it! The amount of technical detail is very impressive and is part of the reason it makes the book so interesting to me, being an engineer myself. How much research did you have to do and how much did you already know before starting this book? And did you have to make anything up or is everything mostly accurate?

@codynhat See my answer to Danny Short for info about my research process. Almost everything in the book is accurate to real science. One notable exception is the sandstorm at the beginning. In reality, a Martian storm doesn't have enough inertia to damage anything.

@andyweirauthor Andy, honoured to meet you here. For all aspiring writers: could you tell us about your daily writing routine, do you have any habits or instruments that help you write on a regularly basis?

@brendan_o I don't listen to audiobooks very often. Though I did listen to the audiobook of "Ready Player One" read by Wil Wheaton. That was awesome. And I also have to give a shout out to R.C.Bray who did the reading of "The Martian". He did an AMAZING job and he won an award for it.

@andyweirauthor thanks for the response! RP1 was great and I love anything Wil narrates.
Did you have a chance to read the John Scalzi post (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/...)? Specifically I found it interesting how he says audiobooks have changed how he is writing new content.